


A Discordance of Does

by Anonymous



Series: A Song of Swaps [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 05:43:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18243524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Three daughters for Storm's End, with one sure to be a queen and another its lady?For the marriage market, it was open season.Or: A genderswap AU where Steffon and Cassana Baratheon have three daughters instead of three sons.





	A Discordance of Does

**Author's Note:**

> So apparently this might be a series now.

The year Cassana Estermont bares her second daughter is the same Queen Rhaella miscarries the second time, with what might have been her son's sister-wife.

Aerys might have been envious of this, had not Steffon been his fast friend and close cousin. After all, does not Aerys have his son and heir, where Steffon's wife has yet given him two girls?

This Aerys is young and as sane as he'll ever be, a generous young king who has just seen his twentieth nameday. He hears of young Robetta Baratheon, already a bold and vivacious little girl, and aspires to one day be Aerys the Wise.

Does not his little Rhaegar not deserve better a pale and sallow sister-wife, like Aerys' own queen? Does his faithful cousin not deserve to become father of a queen and see his blood restored to the royal line?

Cassana Estermont, still recovering from Steffana's birth, frowns in bewilderment when she reads the king's proposal. Little Robetta has just seen her second nameday and is the terror of her nurses. Rhaegar is not yet five. Surely their children need not have their futures signed away so young?

Yet neither she nor Steffon see a reason to turn down the match altogether. A daughter of theirs can do no better than Prince Rhaegar's hand. The possibility of never having a son is of little concern. With a spare daughter now, they will at least ensure the succession of the stormlands will never become entangled with the Iron Throne's.

They send a letter to King's Landing that expresses their excitement for joining their houses, though the actual match is left nebulous. Aerys, inspired by Lord Rickard Stark's visit, hatches a new plan to build a new Wall north of the old one and brushes the letter off to the side.

Only three years later, when Shaena Targaryen is born and buried without ever having breathed her first, does Aerys recall that vague promise of a bride.

Steffon is summoned to court. With him come his two daughters, still the only children to his name.

Little Steffana Baratheon is a girl of three. Dark blue eyes wide, she sticks close to her father's side. Even though the glue is practically meddled to her sire the king can clearly see her heavy brow and that she has not even her mother's passing fairness.

Robetta is tall for a girl of five, with broad shoulders and a broad smile. Beneath a head of wild black curls is a face with flashing blue eyes and all the splendor of the storm.

Aerys makes the obvious choice.

* * *

"Robetta is your heir!" Cassana protests, green eyes fierce as the sea. "Unless you mean to make the prince Lord of Storm's End on top of it all!"

"Until a brother is born," Steffon reminds her, for they have years yet to try. "Robetta is fearless and hasn't met anyone she can't wrap around her little finger. She was born to be queen."

"She was born to be Lady of Storm's End! Steffana is... a good girl."

A good girl, always mindful of her mother and Maester Cressen. A shy girl, a quiet girl, even quieter than Rhaella had ever been as a girl.

And two years younger than her sister. Every passing year, and passing miscarriage, makes Aerys increasingly mindful there are but three dragons left in the world.

"Court would eat our good little girl alive," Steffon says bluntly. "Robetta would take them all by storm. Steffana... must learn to rule the storm."

Queen of the Seven Kingdoms and Lady of Storm's End. What greater glories could there be for their girls?

* * *

Aerys, increasingly protective of his only son, will not even allow Rhaegar south to Storm's End to squire. It is Steffon that must come to King's Landing, to be named to the small council and take on the boy that shall one day be his king and good-son. Robetta, newly six, goes with him to serve as Queen Rhaella's cupbearer. She will no longer be in line for Storm's End, when she exchanges her inheritance for a crown and cloak.

Steffana remains behind in Storm's End, for one day yet she might be its lady. Her mother and her great-uncle, Harbert, instruct her in the ways of ruling Steffon cannot.

The stormlords are relentless in their ravens, seeking Steffana's hand for either their heirs or themselves. All believe Storm's End their god given right to rule, for they are descended of the same men that once threw the last Storm Queen chained and naked before the dragonlords.

Steffon and Cassana agree their heiress deserves a worthy bridegroom, one born of a house that can rival even the dragons.

The Lannisters would have been the obvious choice, had Tywin and Joanna a second son to spare. Yet they still have only their golden twins, and Jaime has all the westerlands to one day manage. Jon Arryn likewise has his singular nephew, Elbert.

The Tullys and Tyrells both lack spare sons of a suitable age, for Steffana deserves better than some distant cousin or nephew. There would have been Oberyn Martell to consider, had he not been a Dornishman and therefore even less tolerable than a squid.

Rickard Stark, with sons to spare, reaches out to them first.

* * *

Steffana Baratheon, a whole seven years old, can declare the Vale to be the worst place she has ever been, and that's even counting the visit to Dragonstone and the time the current in Estermont nearly swept her out to sea.

She doesn't even know why she's here. She's to inherit Storm's End, perhaps, not the Eyrie.

Jon Arryn isn't so bad. He dotes on her like a second grandfather, but he's old and busy all the time. Maester Malcolm is old and rude, lacking any of Maester Cressen's wisdom. Jon's nephew, Elbert, is only of an age with Cousin Rhaegar, but he carries himself like a king and only ever bothers asking Steffana if her mother's given Lord Steffon a son yet.

He is, as Bett would put it, a 'bloody arsehole.'

Steffana can at least ignore Elbert, for most of his mean looks are for Jon's other ward.

"Oh, come now, Eddard. There's no reason to mourn. After all, your mother just became a tree."

Steffana tries her best to be a proper lady, but she grinds her teeth real bad when she hears the second reason the Eyrie isn't so bad run off. Kicking Elbert in the shin before she runs off after him might earn her more rotes with the septa later, but to her it's proper justice.

Steffana doesn't know much about Eddard, but she knows he's a northerner, so she goes to the gardens first.

Jon insists it's a godswood, but it's _not._ The one in Storm's End has a proper weirwood, and even the one in King's Landing has a grand oak for a heart tree. But the gardens are the closest thing the Eyrie has to a godswood.

She finds Eddard hiding in a shrub. It doesn't take very long.

Crouching down, for who cares about getting her dress dirty if the septa is already going to be steaming, Steffana says crossly, "You know, if you really want to hide, you should pick somewhere with more than three proper hiding places."

Eddard sniffles, wiping a streak of tears and snot down his sleeve as he turns away from her.

Oh.

Boys are strange about crying, aren't they? Cousin Rhaegar is the most sensitive boy Steffana knows, but even he goes to hide among the dragon skulls or in the godswood if he wants to properly brood.

"I'm sorry," she finally says. "For your mother." Too late she remembers her courtly manners. "I offer my deepest condolences for your loss."

Eddard mutters something into his knees. She tries her best to make it out.

"I'm sorry that your mother _died,_ not turned into a weirwood." Steffana rolls her eyes, because it goes to show what sort of teacher Maester Malcolm is. Even people that follow the old gods don't turn into weirwoods when they die.

Uncertainly, she adds, "I lost a baby brother before I came here, but Mother didn't want me or Bett or anyone else to know about him. So I know how it feels. Somewhat."

Eddard mumbles something a bit more intelligible.

Her lips turn into a sharp frown. "Don't be sorry for me. Elbert would probably say I should be _happy,_ so I can keep being Lady of Storm's End."

Steffana considers their options. Proper justice would be telling Jon Arryn his nephew's awful words and leaving him to deliver whatever punishment he sees fit.

"Bett would do something like leave a bucket of flour on top of Elbert's door, to make him white as a ghost. She did it to one of Queen Rhaella's ladies, when she wouldn't stop all her gossip after another one of our little cousins died. But Bett will be queen one day, and King Aerys thought it was funny, so she can get away with what we can't."

"Why not?" Eddard mumbles. "You'll be Lady of Storm's End."

Steffana considers this and what she knows of their lineages. "You're family, too," she rules at last. "Much closer to me than Elbert is."

Through the Betha and Melantha Blackwood, but ravens and wolves and does all protect their own.

They find syrup from northern maples before they find any flour. Considering who Elbert has wronged, Steffana rules it justice.

The sight of the Heir of the Vale dripping in golden syrup is justice served.

He's still trying to wash the stickiness out of his hair when Ned and Steff finish up their punishment, which is justice sweeter still.

* * *

Robetta Baratheon is six and ten when she strides down the Great Sept of Baelor. King Aerys has spared no expense. The grandiose wedding is almost more celebration than marriage, for the bride's father, who also happens to now be Hand of the King, tactfully refused to set a date any sooner.

The maid the realm publicly hails as Elenei reborn and privately toast as Busty Bett strides down the aisle in a fortune's wealth of silk, lace, and samite. Down her shoulders tumble radiant black curls. The sapphires at her neck bring out the blue eyes in her eyes.

Her groom, tall and pale with moon-spun hair and amethyst eyes, is no less striking. He scarcely needs to look down to meet her gaze, for Robetta stands six feet tall, and radiates beauty from every inch.

They are like something of a fairy tale, the Storm Princess and her Silver Prince.

With a brow too heavy and chin too strong to ever be considered truly beautiful, Steffana feels rather less a fairy tale as she watches the wedding unfold.

As Rhaegar drapes the dragon cloak over his bride's shoulders, so does the weight of responsibility fully settles on Steffana's shoulders.

She is Heiress of Storm's End in truth now, as beholden to the stormlands as Bett is to the realm itself.

When the new Prince and Princess of Dragonstone pass by, Steffana looks across the aisle.

To an outsider, Eddard Stark's face is no less solemn when his eyes meet hers, but Steffana sees it light up from within.

* * *

Tywin Lannister had seen the writing on the wall ever since Robetta Baratheon was formally betrothed to the Prince of Dragonstone. It was what had prompted him to resign from his position, before Aerys could wrest it from him. It does not become the lion to be shoved aside for the stag, no matter the dragon's blood pumping through its veins.

Jaime's list of potential brides grows all the shorter when Stark and Tully decide to throw themselves in bed with the stag as well, pledging their children to his little does. Perhaps Tywin would have honored his beloved Joanna's wishes after all, if Janna Tyrell and the spoils of the Reach had not proved a richer price than what sickly Martell and all of Dorne could ever hope to offer.

Tywin would have been prepared to offer Cersei to Jon Arryn himself, if only to tempt the old falcon from his roost among the dragon's favorites. Jon, with only two dead wives and a stillborn daughter to his name, offers up his nephew and a vow to never remarry.

Tywin supposes the compromise suitable, though an old lord would have allowed Lannister blood to ascend to the Eyrie all the quicker.

* * *

When rumors of a Baratheon match first fly in King's Landing, Loreza Martell offers up her daughter to Aerys, with a dowry befitting a queen. For all the dragon's blood in the Baratheon girls there is near as much in Elia, for Loreza had chosen her consort carefully.

She is displeased but unsurprised when the match is promptly refused. It had been a whim anyway, for Aerys still loves his Steffon so.

Confirmation of Steffana Baratheon's betrothal to Eddard Stark suddenly starts off a new game, one Loreza realizes herself quite unready for.

Her beloved Joanna is gone. Tywin, always one to cut off his nose to spite his face, refuses even Elia for Jaime and uses up all her good will when he counters with a match to the dwarf.

One by one, the sons and daughters of the Great Houses are snapped up by one another, with Loreza's family left out in the cold.

Oh, Tyrell and Tully counter their offers with a daughter for Oberyn with a son for her Arianne. Only their positions force Loreza to grit her teeth and write up letters of cold, polite refusal. Arianne will one day rule Sunspear in Doran's stead.

She is not Cassana Estermont, so sign away her daughter's inheritance to become the broodmare of another.

After Oberyn near costs her the match with Baelor Hightower, Loreza gives up her youngest as a lost cause, leaving him to his bastards and paramours.

Even Aerys thinks himself clever by offering up Viserys and fostering in King's Landing for Arianne.

How fortunate for Loreza, to have a kingdom's worth of lords ready with sons for her Arianne. She'll have no shortage of suitors, when the time comes, men that won't seek to rule through her.

On her deathbed and wracked by consumption, the Princess of Dorne hangs on long enough to hear one last interesting report from her little vipers.

Loreza Martell, old, embittered, and unbroken, dies with a smile on her lips.

At last her little vipers have dripped enough poison in their king's ear to make him turn against his own hand.

* * *

If Rhaegar has prepared himself for a queen as quiet and docile as his mother, Bett teaches him otherwise when she pounces upon him and locks her lips to his. There is only so much she could do with herself without endangering her maidenhead, after all.

Despite his nimble fingers, Rhaegar is... regretfully inept. Bett shall have to properly train him how to play her like a harp, like a dragon must learn to ride the storm.

Little Renna nearly killed Mother, after all. It must be Robetta to make Rhaegar love her, to bear enough sons to make herself and her family indispensable to the throne, for fickle Aerys need not always be upon it.

Dragonstone is a dull and dreary place. So Bett brings her ladies and courtiers and all their adorable little children to make it less so. Her poor, sensitive husband sulks at crying babes and jesting ladies to interrupt Dragonstone's dismal silence. Bett leaves him his quiet corners, to muse over his songs and dreams and prophecies when the mood falls over him.

The rest gets a renovation long needed. Despite being on the sea Storm's End is properly heated and ventilated. No Baratheon or Durrandon has lost a child to greyscale, and Bett certainly is not.

Not even a year into their marriage, Robetta bears her first. She's a girl, big and strapping, with coal-black hair and eyes a blue so deep they are almost violet.

Rhaegar, predictably, names her Visenya. He is the only one do to so, for Bett gets even Steffana to call her little girl Nya.

Bett tries for that son as soon as she's able.

And nearly groans to the gods when its another gods damned girl. Rhaegar, unruffled, names her Rhaenys.

When their second daughter is presented to court, Aerys sweeps his gaze over her stormy blue eyes and coal-black hair.

"How beautiful," Rhaella coos, running her hair with Nys' hair and its streak of pale silver. "Were it not for this lovely streak, she'd almost be the splitting image of her great-grandmother, my Aunt Rhaelle."

"I see only a doe," Aerys sniffs, and refuses to hold her.

Bett nearly decks him for that one.

Instead, she inhales deeply through her nose and counts down, drilled into her it comes easy as breathing.

She imagines herself shoving her dear good-father backwards, to impale him on the Iron Throne like a pig on a stick, and keeps her queenly composure.

* * *

Expecting her third babe in three years, Busty Bett is quite a bit bustier and nowhere near trim around the middle when she drags herself and her girls to Harrenhal. Walter Whent wants to flaunt his wealth and his pretty little maiden daughter before the realm.

Well, Bett will shove her fertile womb and her little princess down the realm's throat until they choke on it. She is not her good-mother, to be shoved into the shadows and milked like a cow.

Radiant with child, Robetta Targaryen glows bright and smug as the sun when her triumphant husband later crowns her his queen of love and beauty.

She is so pleased with her husband that she actually might fancy it love. So much so, she does't need to fake her smile and murmured agreements when he starts singing his song of ice and fire again.

She is not surprised in the slightest when Rhaegar names their firstborn son Aegon.

It is a pleasant surprise, however, that her Great-Grandpa Egg finally passed down his silver hair after all.

* * *

It is easy to overlook Renna Baratheon. She calls Good Queen Bett and Argella Reborn her sisters, after all, and is so much younger than them both.

Renna is said to resemble Robetta at her height, though shorter and not quite as fierce in her splendor. Most striking are her eyes, a deep blue-green where her sisters and nieces and nephews all have some shade of blue or violet.

Like her eldest sister, Renna wins friends easily. She and her ladies have brought light and life back to Riverrun. She may find spinning and sewing tedious, but her eye for fashion, and the queen’s patronage, have granted her court in Riverrun influence the riverlands has not seen in centuries.

Hoster Tully cannot fault his good-daughter, either for her family or her comportment. He wishes only for grandchildren that have the name Tully, and not Stark or Ryger.

Renna has some fondness for Edmure, her dear Floppy Fish. Gods willing, children will come for them eventually. Perhaps.

How fortunate for her, to have so many young and beautiful ladies to attend to her in Riverrun, to make her long hours sewing and praying to the Mother for a womb bountiful as Robetta’s pass a little quicker.

* * *

It's an accident, they say. An unfortunate accident.

Poor Aerys had been fragile in his final years, too sensitive to even have his hair and nails trimmed. How unfortunate, for him to have tripped over his own robe with his Kingsguard too far away to catch him in time.

It's a mercy, when the king finally lets the Stranger take him. He spends his last week in bed without ever regaining consciousness.

King Aerys, Second of his Name, passes without ever knowing the final daughter conceived upon his wife. Rhaella, the new Queen Mother, shall spend the rest of her life in mourning for her beloved brother. She shall name their daughter Daenerys, to be a princess of peace.

King Rhaegar, First of his Name, ascends the Iron Throne with a heavy heart. He is crowned alongside his beloved queen, Robetta Baratheon, and their son Aegon proclaimed Prince of Dragonstone.

For the sake of continuity, there needs to be no great changes to the small council.

After all, Steffon Baratheon has served as Hand of the King for many successful years. He shall serve his good-son just as faithfully as he served his beloved cousin.

* * *

The laughter of the children echoes up through the godswood.

Steff muses it is perhaps time to check up on them, to ensure Ormund and Lyarra haven't convinced their cousin Aethan it is family tradition to climb the weirwood.

Ned moves his tongue just so, and the acting Lady of Storm's End finds his argument to stay very convincing.

Their Shireen is a good girl. She'll keep her siblings from doing anything foolish.

A curt knock at the solar door has her straightening her skirt and her husband his collar. He moves back to his chair and they are once more Steffana and Eddard, in passionate discussion over which almshouses are in most dire need of restoration.

"Enter," the acting Lady of Storm's End orders.

Maester Cresser is grim as the Stranger. The open letter in his hand is not stamped with Father's or Renna's sigil, but Bett's.

Steffana fights to keep composure.

Her first thought is for a babe, but it is too soon after little Rhaelle for Bett to have conceived and lost one. Not that her sister has ever borne a babe not hearty and hale.

It must be Father or the good Queen Mother, perhaps dead in the same inauspicous manners that has seen the Lady Lioness ruling the Eyrie for her young son. Perhaps it is Viserys, having at last found an Essosi bride and Essosi backers for his bid to forge the Freehold anew. Or the krakens, once more stirring in their ruined isles.

Perhaps it is a woman's weakness that makes Steffana grasp for Ned's hand, but she does so all the same. The hand that takes the letter barely shakes.

Steffana reads and reads again.

"The king is dead," she says dully.

And, then, dutifully, "An accident. A most unfortunate accident."

Young Aegon is king now, and Nya his queen. How unfortunate for them, and Steffana's brood of nieces and nephews.

Poor sweet, loving Rhaenys, who adores her cats and her horses, to have lost her father so close to her sixteenth nameday.

**Author's Note:**

> To give you an idea of how Westeros might have screwed itself through its Great House marriages: 
> 
> Steffon Baratheon, Lord Paramount of the Stormlands (246 - ) (m. Cassana Estermont) (244 - )
> 
> \--Robetta Baratheon, Queen Mother (262 - ) (m. Rhaegar Targaryen) (259 - 296)  
> \----Visenya 'Nya' Targaryen, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms (279 - ) (m. Aegon Targaryen) (281 - )  
> \----Rhaenys Targaryen (280 - )  
> \----Aegon IV Targaryen, King of the Seven Kingdoms (281 - ) (m. Visenya Targaryen) (279 - )  
> \----Baela (283), Jaehaerys (284 - ), Aethan (287 - ), Betha (290 - ), Daeron (292 - ), and Rhaelle (295 - ) Targaryen
> 
> \--Steffana Baratheon, Heiress of Storm's End (264 - ) (m. Eddard Stark) (263 - )  
> \----Lyarra Baratheon (286 - )  
> \----Shireen Baratheon (289 - )  
> \----Ormund Baratheon (291 - )
> 
> \--Renna Baratheon (277 - ) (m. Edmure Tully) (273 - )
> 
> Rickard Stark, Lord of the North (m. Lyarra Stark) ( - 270)  
> \--Brandon Stark, Heir of Winterfell (262 - ) (m. Catelyn Tully) (262 - )  
> \----Robard (283 - ), Sansa (286 - ), Brandon (290 - ), and Cregard Stark (295 - )  
> \--Eddard Stark (see Steffana Baratheon)  
> \--Lyanna Stark, Lady of Bear Island (266 - ) (m. Jorah Mormont)  
> \----Jon Mormont (283 - ), Arya Mormont (289 - )  
> \--Benjen Stark (268 - )
> 
> Tywin Lannister, Lord Paramount of the Westerlands (m. Joanna Lannister) ( - 273)  
> \--Jaime Lannister, Heir of Casterly Rock (266 - ) (m. Janna Tyrell) (263 - )  
> \----Myrcella Lannister (290 - ), Tommen Lannister (291 - )  
> \--Cersei Lannister, Regent of the Eyrie (266 - ) (m. Elbert Arryn) (259 - 295)  
> \----Joffrey Arryn, Lord of the Vale (286 - )  
> \--Tyrion Lannister (273 - )
> 
> Hoster Tully, Lord Paramount of the Riverlands (m. Minisa Whent)  
> \--Catelyn Tully (see Brandon Stark)  
> \--Lysa Tully, Lady of Willow Wood (267 - ) (m. Tristan Ryger) (270 - )  
> \----Minisa (285 - ), Wylla (288 - ), Celia (288 - ), and Robin Ryger (292 - )  
> \--Edmure Tully, Heir of Riverrun (see Rena Baratheon)
> 
> Loreza Martell, Princess of Dorne ( - 279)  
> \--Doran Martell, Prince of Dorne (m. Mellario of Norvos)  
> \----Arianne (276 - ), Quentyn (281 - ) (b. Daenerys 'Stormborn' Targaryen) (284 - ), and Trystayne Martell (287 - )  
> \--Elia Martell (257 - ) (m. Baelor Hightower) (259 - )  
> \----Maron Hightower (280 - )  
> \--Oberyn Martell (258 - )


End file.
